Leicester City to embark on four-day bonding trip following Hull fixture
Leicester City will embark on a four-day bonding trip after Saturday’s crucial Premier League match at home to Hull City with Craig Shakespeare then expecting to hear whether he will continue as the club’s manager.
Further talks are scheduled to take place “in the middle part of next week”, Shakespeare revealed, after he met with Leicester’s director of football Jon Rudkin and vice-chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha following last Monday’s win over Liverpool to be asked to take the team for at least one more game.
“I’ve been asked just to take the next game,” said Shakespeare, who has stepped up from being assistant manager following the sacking of Claudio Ranieri.
“I’ve been informed that we will sit down after that. The remit is - prepare the team for Hull, see if we can get the same result and sit down after that. I’m quite comfortable with that. I’ve been told, I’ve been kept informed.
“I’m sure the owners will give me their views after that. We sat down on Wednesday with the vice-chairman and the director of football (Jon Rudkin) and it was just a chat to say ‘would you take the game for this weekend?’ which I agreed to.”
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After Saturday Leicester do not play again until the Champions League last-16 second-leg tie at home to Sevilla (trailing 2-1) on March 14 by which time it is hoped either Shakespeare will remain in charge until at least the end of the campaign or a new appointment will be made.
Shakespeare hopes it will become apparent next week. “It’s going to be Sunday to Wednesday (warm-weather training) and the idea is we will sit down the middle part of next week and I’m quite happy with that,” he said. Asked whether he had told the owners whether he wants the job, Shakespeare added: “It never came up and I am there to listen to what their wishes are at the moment and I’m very comfortable with what they have told me so far.”
Shakespeare admitted that the Leicester squad needed to go away to help ‘bond’ after a bruising season in which they have come in for some fierce criticism. “We are going to take them away for a few days for warm weather training,” he said.
“I’m very happy with that, very pleased with that and it’s something the owners have wanted to do for a while. If you talk about last season and in terms of the togetherness and how they socialised and went out for meals they just haven’t been able to do that this season with the amount of games. It’s a good opportunity for us to get together as a team.”
